Quality Management Quality criteria set for Allergy centres of Excellence

Standardizing quality criteria among allergy centres organized within GA²LEN, thus ensuring equal standards of diagnosis and care across EU countries, as well as a culture of continuous quality improvement in European allergy and asthma research and clinical care.

Quality Management Programme

Another successful GA²LEN QM Audit with GA²LEN certificate awarded for the centre

The GA²LEN Quality Management (QM) Programme addresses the problem of differing standards of care for allergy and asthma patients in EU countries, aiming to harmonize clinical practice in order to provide the best possible patient care in every country, and to make research and clinical results more comparable. At the beginning of the GA²LEN QM Programme, only two centres had a formal QM system in place, and budget considerations kept many centres from establishing such a system. GA²LEN filled the gap by providing two levels of quality criteria, performing audits, and offering practical support to improve services (e.g. via benchmarking).

With the goal of an integrated European health care system, standardization of care is key. This has led to guidelines dealing with diagnosis and therapy of common conditions, e.g. asthma. The GA²LEN QM Programme solves the problem of fragmented or differing standards of care for allergy and asthma patients in different EU countries. The GA²LEN QM programme is the first and only QM programme to use a set of quality criteria to certify allergy centres of excellence (other QM programmes certify e.g. standards of care in cancer centres, or general standards in medical facilities).

At present, centres in 16 countries are certified in the GA²LEN QM Programme. The initiative is implemented by the central GA²LEN Office in Berlin, which certifies each centre in all countries.

The latest GA²LEN QM Audit was carried out at the Department of Paediatric Allergy, St. Thomas' Hospital, London. The Department was awarded a Level 2 QM Certificate, showing a very high quality of medical care whilst also engaging in significant research.